When Louisville resident Paul Di Diego Rollerbladed home from work on June 29, he remembers making it through the pedestrian underpass off of Cherry Street and all the way to his house on Hoover Avenue, where he played with his dog.

But three days after that routine skate home, he woke up in the critical care unit at Denver Health Medical Center, fortunate to be alive.

Di Diego, 34, and his wife Audrey Leidy are trying to piece together what happened that afternoon after he left Whole Foods in the Superior Marketplace, where he has worked as a prepared-food chef for nearly two years.

When Di Diego's shift ended at about 3:30 p.m. June 29, he rollerbladed along Cherry Street and headed along the paved sidewalk that goes downhill and requires a 90-degree right-hand turn through the tunnel under Cherry.

Louisville resident Paul Di Diego sits in his living room with his 5-year-old husky/coonhound mix, Arooo!, on Monday, Aug. 13. Di Diego suffered a brain injury and broke both of his arms and his leg after a rollerblading accident in late June. Doctors induced a coma and, when Di Diego woke up in the hospital three days late, couldn't remember anything from the incident and thought he rollerbladed home and played with his dog. (Kimberli Turner/Colorado Hometown Weekly)

Leidy, manager at In Season Local Market in Louisville, said paramedics with the Louisville Fire Department later told her that witnesses -- a man and a woman who might have had one or more children with them -- saw Di Diego traveling at about 25 to 30 mph down the hill and later found him sprawled on the ground near the mouth of the tunnel, about a mile from home.

"Paul Rollerbladed past these people, I don't know if it was a family, and they came up on that corner and found him," Leidy said. "Those are the people I would like to find and thank."

Di Diego took this route home hundreds of times.

That day, though, he hit the cement wall directly in front of the path at the tunnel's opening.

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He broke the bones in the left side of his face and part of his jaw, shattered his right arm from elbow to wrist, fractured his left arm and potentially sprained his left wrist, shattered his left leg and only has about 25 percent of his left kneecap in place. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.

He said paramedics told his wife he was conscious at the scene and also in the ambulance that transported him to Lafayette's Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center and he even asked paramedics if they thought he had any broken bones before he passed out.

Leidy said paramedics did not have the witnesses' names and, as far as she knows, no one saw the actual accident occur.

Di Diego does not remember his crash and he and his wife desperately want to thank the witnesses who saved his life.

"He doesn't remember the accident at all," Leidy said. "His brain actually replaced it with a happier memory. He thinks he bladed all the way home and played with our dog."

"I thought I made it through the tunnel just fine. I remember pretty green trees with red flowers," Di Diego said, adding that his brain might have recalled those images as he lay on the sidewalk.

"You can't even see into the tunnel until you get down there," he added. "I usually yell ahead before I get in the tunnel and I thought I did (that day) and then I remember making it through the tunnel OK."

But he didn't.

Di Diego was transported by helicopter to Denver Health that evening where doctors induced a coma to help his body and brain recover -- his brain was bleeding and swelling and Leidy said doctors didn't think Di Diego would live. She, however, never felt despair.

"I never got that feeling," Leidy said. "I think I was blessed with shock or hope."

Di Diego spent two weeks at Denver Health and another week at Boulder Community Hospital's Mapleton Rehabilitation Center in Boulder -- where he worked with a speech therapist as well as an occupational and physical therapist -- before he was released to go home.

Two physical therapists visit Di Diego at home twice a week each to work with him to regain mobility in his leg and arm.

Di Diego can bend his knee 40 degrees and uses a walking cane -- instead of the walker he initially used -- to hobble around the lower level of his split-level home.

He also has daily headaches which likely stem from the concussion he received. Those could continue for six months, as could the bleeding on the brain he still experiences. Di Diego said he gets dizzy spells when he goes from lying down to sitting up, and from head movements he would not have classified as "fast" before the accident.

Di Diego also learned he had lost his sense of smell when his 5-year-old husky/coonhound mix, named Arooo!, came inside the house after getting sprayed by a skunk and he had no idea the dog smelled.

Doctors told Di Diego that his sense of smell could return in time and are hopeful it will due to the fact he still has his sense of taste.

Di Diego, who brews his own beer and mead, aspires to judge mead competitions but needs his sense of smell in order to become a certified judge.

He also normally cooks at home and is an artist, all of which are hard for him to do currently.

"I'm starting to get where I can write again. It's still painful but I realize there's going to be some pain with anything I want to do right now," he said.

Di Diego is on short-term disability, which is approved through September for now, but he said doctors think he could be away from work through at least October.

Leidy said doctors have been surprised with her husband's progress and she said Di Diego's ever-optimistic outlook combined with his determination to heal have helped him get to this point a month and half after the accident.

Di Diego agreed that staying positive is key.

"It's keeping me in a healthier mood, generally," he said.

On Thursday, Aug. 16, Old Louisville Inn will host a benefit to raise money to help pay Di Diego's medical bills. The event, which includes a silent auction and live music, will run 3 to 8 p.m. at 740 Front Street, in Downtown Louisville.

OLI will donate 10 percent of that day's food sales to the cause.

Those interested in donating an item, skill or service for the silent auction should stop by In Season Local Market, 924 Main Street, Louisville, and ask for Audrey Leidy.

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